Catholics should encourage a “vigorous debate” among India’s intellectuals “about the danger of surrendering the future of the country to the aggressive elements in society”, Church leaders have said.
Speaking in Bangalore at the 32nd plenary assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis said most Hindus do not seek to impose their religious views on others. Msgr Thomas Mepamparampil, apostolic administrator of Jowai, said he “would generally agree… that Hindu society as a whole respects other points of view and is tolerant of minorities”, but noted that “there is certainly an aggressive minority among them that seeks to keep alive the memories of historic wounds that Hindu society suffered in the past in order to obtain the dominant positions in the country”.
